Memories
by Ash Skywalker
Summary: No, sorry, it's not a Jamie/Caitie fic. Actually, it's about Tyler and his past. It shows it wasn't all glitz and glammour.
1. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer-The only thing I 'own' is Kyle.Nuthin else, big surprise!

A.N.This story takes place before the pilot episode.(That's why Tyler still has the leprechaun thing before the flashback.)I guess this could be called a late response to Em Walters' challenge.Enjoy! J

# Memories

Tyler knit his brows in confusion as he studied the words in his tattered chemistry book carefully.He was an above average student, but that didn't mean he understood everything.He twirled his pencil absently in one hand.He found the answer he was looking for, and turned to his paper, blank except for his name and the date.The pencil flew out of his hand, and landed on the floor, and rolled under his bed.He sighed, and walked over to the bed.His hand felt around for the missing pencil.It soon collided with a smooth, almost circular object.Frowning, he pulled it out from under his bed.What he saw made his eyebrows rise in surprise.

It was a snow globe.It wasn't much to look at; in fact it was downright ugly.The base was a dark green, and it was chipping a bit.The globe was filled with water, except for a small spot of air in the top.Completing the globe was a huge leprechaun.He was dressed in green, and had a smiling face with flaming red hair.The whole thing just looked… weird.

But Tyler hadn't the tiniest thought about the thing's looks.He slid to the floor, the side of the bed supporting his back.A solitary tear slid off his cheek as a river of memories came flooding back…

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

A loud thud interrupted 9-year-old Tyler Connell's thoughts.Daddy's home!Tyler ran to the door as fast as his legs would propel him.He collided with his dad halfway.He pulled Tyler into a massive bear hug.Suddenly, they were both knocked over by some unseen force.Tyler craned his neck around to find his brother, Kyle pressed against them.Both Connell kids erupted in laughter as their dad started to tickle them.

"Dad!" Kyle roared, "That tickles!"

"Yeah," Tyler added, "stop."Mr. Connell laughed and looked at his boys with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"I'm not stopping until both your pants are wet!" he announced gleefully.Andrea Connell, the boy's mother, stepped around the corner.

"Boys, let your father breathe, dinner's ready," she announced.The boys looked up, and got up off the floor.Tyler took his father's right hand, and Kyle took the other, and the made a procession toward the kitchen.

After dinner, the Connell boys trailed their father everywhere.It wasn't everyday that their father came home from work this early.He usually came home after the boys were fast asleep, and he left before the boys woke up.Needless to say, they didn't see him very much.

After 3 games of Trouble, and an hour of watching TV with dad, Kyle and Tyler were herded to bed by their mother, complaining all the way.Once in bed, Tyler tossed and turned in the covers.He just couldn't seem to go to sleep.It wasn't his bed, it was VERY comfortable, his dad's job had taken care of that.After about an hour of restlessness, Tyler was about to enter the world of dreams.But he was snatched back by voices barely heard.Tyler tried to shut out all other noises but the voices.

"…never home… the boys… like tonight… hanging on your every word… miss you…" he thought that voice belonged to his mother.Now he heard another, deep, distinctive voice.

"…trying… I can't… hard… doing the best I…job brings in money… important…" that was the voice of his father.He heard his mother's voice clearly now, her voice had risen.

"John, family should be more important to you than anything else!Kyle and Tyler miss you terribly, you should see how much they look up to you."The voices reduced to murmurs then, and finally went quiet.Tyler climbed out of bed, and wobbled unsteadily on his legs toward Kyle's room.

He found his 10 year old brother with his ice blue eyes fixed on the ceiling.He climbed on the bed beside him.The Connell boys were only a year apart, so they were very close.They knew what the other was thinking, and therefore did not need words to communicate.They did not like to hear their parent's fighting, even as minor a fight as this one.Tyler fell asleep in Kyle's room, feeling comforted in his older brother's presence.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Over the next 4 years, John Connell was home less and less.The fighting between him and Andrea were getting worse and worse.The Connell boys tried to act as normal as possible, but it was getting harder, home life was getting more and more tense.They started spending more time at activities.Tyler joined a non-competitive football team, while Kyle joined a soccer team.However, the boys weren't prepared for what was announced later one night.Tyler and Kyle were sitting in Kyle's room, concentrating on their homework.

"Hey Kyle, Ty, can we talk for a little bit?" John Connell asked as he and Andrea walked in the room.Both boys looked up, sensing the solemnity of both parents.

"What's wrong?" Kyle asked, "is everything ok?"Tyler studied his parent's faces as they sat down.He didn't like what he saw.

"Boys, your mother and I have to tell you something very important, so listen, please."

"Your father and I have grown apart.We're still friends, but sometimes friends have trouble with being with each other all the time."

"We're afraid… well, we have to separate… kind of like a break from each other."Tyler and Kyle stared in shock at their parents.They weren't saying what they thought they were saying, were they?They listened on in horrified wonder.

"Now we know this will upset you, but maybe this break will be good for this family.We'll most likely move back together after this break."

"We're moving!" Tyler erupted, "you can't!What about Tyler and me!What happens to us?"

"Your mother's not moving, son, but I will be," he seemed to hesitate on this next part, "we're still deciding what you boys will do."Tyler couldn't take it anymore.He ran out of the room, and fled from the house.He dashed to a basketball court, and started flinging a basketball in the general direction of the hoop.

Part 2 coming soon!Please review if you have any feedback.I certainly could use it!


	2. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer-Don't own, just love

A.N.This story takes place before the pilot episode.(That's why Tyler still has the leprechaun thing before the flashback.)I guess this could be called a late response to Em Walters' challenge.Read part 1 before you read this.Enjoy! J

# Memories

(Part 2)

For the next 2 weeks, Tyler closed up, no one could bring him to open up, he didn't even confide in Kyle.In the weeks to come, it was decided that Tyler would stay with his mom in Chicago, while Kyle and his dad would move to Colorado.Tyler went numb with shock.He was losing his dad, **and **his brother.

At the airport, right before John and Kyle's departure, Tyler's dad swooped him up in a hug. His feet were left dangling in the air.Tyler was trying so hard not to cry.His face was turning red with the effort.He turned to face his brother, and totally broke down.How was he ever supposed to live without Kyle to confide in?Tyler cried the whole way home.Saying goodbye was the hardest thing he had ever done.

Life with just his mother felt weird, and empty.Tyler quit his football team, and his grades nose-dived.He felt like he was falling, with the bottom nowhere in sight.His heart had broken in two, and he separated himself from the world.

After a few weeks, he opened a little toward his mother, and started helping her out a lot more.His father sent money, but Tyler's mom still had to work a lot.Things steadily improved, albeit slowly.He managed to pull off decent grades.He was slowly working on opening up to others, and making friends.But just as Tyler was getting accustomed to life this way, his mom started seeing someone.His name was William.Tyler was always distant from William, he already had a father, he didn't need another.He convinced himself that William was here temporarily, and would leave soon enough.

But his mom continued seeing William.It had been 2 months, then 5, and then a whole year.Tyler kept in touch with Kyle, and told him all about William, and asked Kyle's opinion.Kyle had some troubling news in return.Their father had met someone as well.Things with the Connell family weren't working out the way they had expected.And Tyler's dream of being a family again was soon to be squashed.

Tyler was helping his mom with the groceries one day when he spotted a ring on his mother's finger.It wasn't the one his dad had given her.His eyebrows went up in surprise and suspicion.His mother saw his expression and asked what was wrong.Tyler gestured to her hand.His mother glanced at it and sighed.

"Tyler, William and I… um well, we're getting married." Tyler just stood there, staring.How could she?!

"And when were you planning to tell me?" he asked incredulously.

"I was planning tonight at dinner, when William was here with me," she said resignedly, "look, honey, I know this will be hard for you," she said, stepping closer to him.Tyler stepped back, and fled once more, his mother calling his name after him.

After William moved in, (they had decided they would live in the Connell house, it was slightly bigger,) Tyler made himself as scarce as possible.Even when he was with his mother and William, he seldom talked.His grades dropped, and he closed up once more.Things went from bad to worse.One evening at dinner, his mother announced that they would have to move.William had been transferred to Kingsport, Connecticut, and the job offered a lot of money.

Tyler started to pack his many things resignedly.He reached for the leprechaun snow globe that his father gave him when he was 6.'Thanks a lot, dad,' he thought as he packed it along with his other stuff.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Tyler was more miserable than ever.He was uprooted from his home, and transplanted somewhere where he knew no one, not to mention he had no friends.His mother and father were now officially divorced.His father and brother were about a thousand miles away.And to top it off, William had come into the picture.

Tyler set himself to the task of unpacking his stuff.His new room was even bigger than his old one, due to William's raise.Tyler monotonously unpacked one box after another, his thoughts far away.Eventually, his hand brushed across the tattered snow globe.The globe triggered something, and Tyler was filled with a rage.

He threw the globe across the room, not seeing or caring where it landed.He threw himself on his bed, and started sobbing heartily into his pillow, and murmuring incoherent words to himself.Everything that he had bottled up for the past 2 years came gushing out in torrents.He lay in his room, sputtering occasionally until he fell into a troubled sleep.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

A cool breeze ran past Tyler as he walked the streets of Kingsport.His mom and William had been bugging him to get out of the house more, so he decided to take them up on that offer.Hey, at least he wasn't that close to William all the time.Tyler had come to a decision in the past 2 weeks.His heart had felt like it had been tearing in two since his dad and brother moved away.It was a terrible feeling.He wanted to make sure no one else felt what he had felt; he wanted to help fix their hurt.He had heard about a squad of EMT's, (Emergency Medical Technicians) in Kingsport.He wanted to join as soon as he was old enough.He wasn't going to be fixing the same kind of hurt that he had gone through, but it would do.

Tyler was on his way to the Kingsport EMS station to pick up a training book.Even though he had about a year and a half until he was 16, and able to become an EMT, he figured he might as well be prepared.He had even met a new friend, Hank, who wanted to be an EMT also.Things were going slightly better for Tyler.

He entered the station, and walked down the hallways, humming softly to himself.He came to Alex's office, and tapped lightly on the glass.Alex, who was on the phone, motioned Tyler in with a wave.Tyler entered and stood in front of the desk, waiting patiently for Alex to finish.When he did, he looked up and smiled.

"Hey Tyler, did you come for the book?" he asked.

"Yeah," Tyler answered.Alex reached under his desk and pulled out a thick manual.He laid it down on his desk, and pulled out some forms.

"Sign right there," Alex prompted.Tyler complied, and signed his name on the sheet.As he did, he noticed Hank's name was on there also.

"Good luck," Alex said as Tyler picked up the book, and turned to leave.

"Thanks," Tyler replied absently, already absorbed in reading the book.He continued to read as he walked through the EMS station.He was so wrapped up in reading, that he didn't see the girl around the corner until he collided with her.Books flew everywhere.Tyler was startled.He looked up to see who he had collided with.What he saw almost took his breath away.

He had collided with an absolutely gorgeous girl!She looked to be about 14.She had short, blonde hair, and beautiful blue eyes.

"Oh!I'm so sorry!Let me help you with these," Tyler exclaimed, bending down to pick up the books.She bent down also, and gathered some books up.Tyler caught the titles of the books as he handed them to her.They were all EMT books!

"Hi," she said, as she brushed herself off and extended her hand, "I'm Val."

"I'm Tyler," he said, as he shook her hand.'Man,' he thought, 'things are finally starting to go my way!' 

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Tyler smiled as these last thoughts flew through his head.Everything had turned out all right in the end.He got up, with the globe in his hand, and put it up on one of his shelves, where it would be safe, and where he could be reminded of his dad and brother more often.Maybe he could find some use for it some day…

Hope ya liked it, please review if you have any feedback.I could certainly use it!

~Ash Skywalker


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